The Emperor's Arrow

by Lauren DM Smith

  The breezeway they walked down was limestone, like all the buildings they passed. To their right, a line of evenly spaced alabaster columns separated the walkway from the gardens. The ones they passed now were filled with white and yellow flowers heavily attended to by bees.

  Rounding a corner, Evony could see their destination to the left. At least, she assumed the garden filled with what looked like two dozen women dressed in outfits identical to hers in a variety of colours was where they were headed.

  The inner garden was surrounded on three sides by limestone walls that held a variety of arched doorways while the last side was the breezeway that Evony was just now leaving. The guard gestured towards the assembled women before turning and hurrying back the way they’d come. Evony snorted at his lack of manners and not properly conveying her as she was sure he’d been ordered to. Still, maybe this was normal for mainlanders.

  She strode towards the other women, noticing the rainbow of colours. As she got closer, she found she was the only person in yellow. She realized then that their dress colours had been assigned by their provinces. And as the Aurelines were the only family from Silvinsula, she would be the only yellow among the group.

  That accounted for the stares she was getting. Several of the other girls whispered behind their hands, while some were clearly avoiding her stare. Sweeping the whole lot with her eyes, Evony noted that in addition to being among the oldest, she was the only one armed. That had her frowning slightly. She’d heard that most warriors on the mainland were men, but this was the first time she’d really felt that difference.

  She wondered how the other women defended themselves. She supposed they could have unarmed defensive skills, though that would make keeping oneself safe from an armed attacker all the harder. Evony mentally shook away her distracting thoughts as she came to a stop at the back of the crowd of women, near a girl in red and another in blue. The girl in red glanced at her briefly, but when Evony met her gaze, the girl ducked her head and stared at the ground.

  Shrugging, Evony took a better look around the courtyard garden they were in. Several serving girls stood along the wall to their right, while directly in front of them was a small portable wooden dais flanked by two guards on each side. Even as she watched, a man climbed up the few steps it took to reach the platform and looked down at them all.

  His red-brown hair and thin features were visible to everyone, not just Evony’s elevated vantage point. Though she had noticed at least two other girls who were of a height with her. “Welcome,” the man said, his voice deeper than Evony had expected. “I am Rakin, chief aide to his imperial majesty, Emperor Galen. In his name, I thank you for journeying such great distances to be here.

  “We are most honoured to have you all with us. As you are aware, his majesty has decided it is time he takes a bride and has summoned you all here with that in mind.” Evony couldn’t help the face she made. While her honour wouldn’t allow her to deliberately attempt to get sent home, she still hoped she would be among the first released from this insanity.

  “To ensure that the most appropriate choice is made, we have prepared a variety of competitions to decide the suitability of each of you. These contests will continue until such a time as only one of you remains or until his majesty makes a choice. I hope you all find that satisfactory?”

  Rakin didn’t wait for a reply. “Our first competition is simple,” he said as several of the girls leaned in, eager looks on their face. Even the girl in red beside her looked up. Evony kept a calm expression on outwardly while inwardly she wrinkled her nose in distaste. She was all about competition, but not for something so important and so deeply personal as choosing a proper lifemate. There was a reason so many of her clanswomen only used men as studs instead of bringing them back to their island. It was hard to find someone you could share the rest of your life with, someone who you were sure of.

  She focused back on Rakin’s words as he continued, “We want each of you to go out and find something that is important to being an empress. You must bring that object back here and offer an explanation as to why you believe it is important for an empress. You will all have a time limit of one hour. Anyone who does not return here at the end of that time will be automatically disqualified. Is that clear?”

  Head nods and soft murmurs of assent seemed to be enough for him. Rakin glanced briefly at something laying in front of him then he looked at the women before him. “Then you have until the second hour as the sundial has it. Begin!”

  For a moment, the whole crowd of women froze. Then, like some loud noise had startled them all into flight at the same moment, they sped off. Evony stood where she was, watching with some amusement as the others hurried past, heading for every doorway like water heading for a drain. It was obvious from the way they moved that more than a few were unaccustomed to running.

  In moments the courtyard cleared. When the crowd was gone, Evony saw that it was only her and the girl in red beside her who remained of the bride candidates. She looked over at the other girl. Taking in the way the stranger worried her bottom lip with her teeth and how her trembling hands had grabbed giant fistfuls of her scarlet overdress, Evony had a good idea of why she hadn’t raced off with the others.

  “Are you all right?” she asked, not liking how pale the other girl looked.

  Light brown eyes met her darker ones for a moment, then dropped to the ground. “I... That is to say...”

  “Are you feeling unwell?”

  The other girl shook her head. “No. I...I don’t know what I should bring back,” she whispered, cheeks flaring up in imitation of the colour she wore.

  “Ah. Is that all?”

  The stranger jerked her head up to stare at Evony, lips sagging open slightly. Evony smiled. In a way, this girl reminded her of her brother. He always stared at people with his mouth open when he was surprised too. “I can’t afford to be eliminated,” the girl said, voice rising and cracking a little. “I can’t.”

  “Then think of it another way. Instead of what item you should bring, think about what traits make a good empress in your mind. Once you have an idea for that, thinking of an item should be much simpler.”

  For several punctums the other girl said nothing, face hidden by her black hair as she stared at the ground. She looked up after a couple of moments and hesitantly said, “M-mercy?”

  Evony smiled as reassuringly as she could. Her brother was like this sometimes too, whenever he thought of the reality of leaving their clan and joining another. The idea of moving away from them all occasionally sent him into a panic, and it was Evony who always had to calm him down and get him to think. “That’s a good idea. Do you know of anything here that represents mercy that you could bring here?”

  She bit her lip for a moment, then her eyes lit up and she nodded. “I have an idea.”

  “Then go get it.”

  The girl smiled. “Thank you,” she said, raising her right arm up in the mainlander gesture of respect. She took a few steps forward then stopped and turned back around. “Are you not going to find something?”

  Evony chuckled. “I already have what I need right here.”

  “Then thank you again, on my name as Admina of Miletum,” the girl said.

  “I am Evony, daughter of Zarina, of clan Aureline. It is an honour to share names with you,” she replied with a closed fist against one shoulder.

  “Until later,” Admina said with a faint smile before she hurried off.

  Evony watched her go then glanced around. The people remaining in the courtyard, the serving girls, guards, and Rakin, were all staring at her. She hid a smile at the range of their expressions, most clearly thinking she was touched in the head. As funny as it would be to leave them staring, she supposed it was time she finished her part in this first competition.

  Chapter 2: Living Together

 
Humming quietly to herself, Evony crossed the courtyard, ignoring the fact that everyone still there was watching her. It seemed to her that since she’d arrived at the palace just a few horas ago she’d been stared at near constantly, and at this point, she was getting used to that fact. She wondered if her people and their ways were really so different from these mainlanders.

  She pushed her idle thoughts away as she stopped in front of the serving girls who stood under the partial shade offered by the position of the wall and the sun. The three of them glanced at each other, one actually paling. Evony smiled and her gaze went to the brown-haired girl the only one of them who didn’t seem completely terrified of her. “Would you mind accompanying me briefly?”

  The girl looked at her companions, who both glanced away, before she swallowed and nodded. Evony smiled again and tried to project the assurance that she meant no harm. The way everyone reacted to her was beginning to make her feel like some kind of beast, as if she was a wolf that someone had let into the flock and that everyone was hoping would pass them by.

  The serving girl trailing behind her, Evony made her way towards the dais, where Rakin still stood. The man tracked her movement, his face a mask of polite interest. Closer up, he was older than Evony had thought, the light lines around his eyes betraying him. He gave off an aura of capability and properness she could practically taste. She struck him from her list of potential sires for her children, having the distinct feeling they wouldn’t get along at all, even for as short a time as she’d heard it took to lie with a man.

  Evony’s gaze flickered briefly towards the guards who stood closest to the dais, not that much could be seen of them in their uniforms. All she could tell was that the guard on the left had blue eyes, while the man on the right had brown. She wondered at the sheer number of guards that seemed to be everywhere in the palace. Realizing what she was doing, Evony focused back on the task at hand.

  She halted in front of Rakin and waved her hand in the direction of the girl she’d brought with her. “The most important aspect of an empress is her people. Without your people there wouldn’t be an empire. Without them to support you, to grow food for you, to fight for you, to do the things you can’t, you would have nothing. They are what makes an empire.”

  Rakin stared at her for a moment then he blinked twice rapidly and inclined his head. “Thank you for your answer,” he said slowly. “It would be best if you would wait here until the other candidates return.”

  Evony nodded and gave him a quick fist to shoulder salute. Then she turned to the serving girl. “Thank you for the help.” She smiled. “I appreciate it.”

  The girl ducked her head in way of reply before scampering back to where she’d been standing previously. Evony watched her for a moment and then turned towards the breezeway she’d entered the courtyard by. In the corner where the walkway met one of the buildings was a large tree.

  Approaching it, Evony recognized the leaves of the huge, spreading tree as those of an oak. Smiling up at it briefly—it reminded her of the massive trees of her home—she settled down beneath it with no care to her dress. Leaning back against the thick trunk, she spotted a chunk of branch a little longer than her forearm and as thick as her thumb and pinky put together at the thinner end only a passus from her foot.

  She reached over and snagged it, dragging it into her lap. She ignored the way the bits of bark clunk to the fine fabric of her dress and pulled out one of her shorter knives off her ankle. Using the knife and her fingernails, she began peeling the bark carefully from the pale wood inside.

  Once most of the brown casing had been removed, Evony dug into the wood. It didn’t take long for the skirt of her dress and the grass around her to acquire a veritable snowfall of wood shavings. She hummed absently as she worked, feeling at least partially at home for the first time since she’d left Silvinsula.

  Evony had the roughest beginning of a shape started when the first of the other candidates returned. Her brown hair in a braid that had been wrapped around her head like a crown and her green dress fluttering behind her as she moved gracefully across the courtyard, the girl walked with an air of confidence.

  She raised a hand and bowed when she reached Rakin, and Evony had to strain her ears to hear what was being said. “A good empress needs to be just,” she said, holding up a set of brass scales. “Otherwise she cannot be trusted by others to be impartial.”

  Rakin’s reply was even harder to hear, but Evony assumed it had been similar enough to hers to make no difference to her. Moments later, the green girl moved to the corner opposite Evony, standing in one of the few patches of shade that could be found in the garden. She glanced briefly at Evony, who smiled. The stranger bowed her head before turning to examine the flowers nearest her.

  The next two girls came at almost the same time. The one in purple brought a flower and spoke of beauty, which made Evony snort, while the girl in orange bore a knife and said an empress needed strength. Once they had finished, the purple girl hovered near the flowers closest to the wall where the serving girls still stood and the one in the orange dress floated around the whole garden, not settling anywhere.

  The following candidate was dressed in blue. She came bearing a pomegranate and offered it up while speaking of an empress’s ability to produce heirs. Evony actually looked up at that, unable to help her stare of disbelief. If that was all it took to rule and rule well, no man would ever hold power.

  By the time Admina returned, the garden had just shy of a dozen young women in it. Evony smiled when Admina looked at her, and the other girl returned the expression then hurried towards the dais and Rakin. This far away she couldn’t hear what Admina said, but she knew that she was talking about mercy, and the wooden bowl was one that Evony had seen the kitchen staff distributing leftover food to the poor in. She thought it was a good choice and something she wouldn’t have thought of.

  Once she was finished, Admina joined Evony, settling herself carefully onto the grass after checking to make sure it wasn’t too wet. Despite the heat of the day, only Admina, and the blue girl who had stood beside them earlier, had joined Evony under the tree.

  “What is it you’re making?” Admina asked after a few moments of quiet, her eyes on Evony’s still moving hands.

  “A spoon,” Evony said without looking up. She’d tried to look at someone, talk, and carve all at the same time, and every attempt so far had ended up with her bleeding. She had never gotten the hang of multitasking the way her oldest sister, Balera, had.

  Admina was silent for a minute. “Do you think we passed?” she whispered.

  Evony sighed. “I don’t know. It depends heavily on what they think is important for an empress. I think your answer had merit, so you should be safe.” She didn’t say anything about wanting to be sent home herself, not to someone who seemed desperate to stay. “As for the rest, we’ll have to wait and see. I can’t imagine we’ll wait too much longer. Not when everyone’s coming back far more quickly.”

  Glancing at the line of three girls in front of Rakin, her new friend nodded. “I’m glad. I’m not sure how much longer I could handle this tension.”

  Evony only shrugged. She actually liked the other girl, something she found a bit odd. They were nothing alike and yet Evony couldn’t deny her friendly feelings towards Admina. Still, it was nice that even in a strange place, even in a competition, she could still find friends. Evony smiled.

  * * *

  A sharp double clap drew Evony’s attention away from her carving and made Admina start. “That is time,” Rakin called, his gaze sliding across the garden. “If you ladies will kindly rejoin us here?”

  In a quietly chattering group, the girls crowded in, looking like a rainbow being swept into a small, misshapen box. Ending up near the edge, Evony stood beside Admina and a girl in white. Her gaze was on the emperor’s aide and she didn’t have to wait long.
>
  “Thank you for your patience,” Rakin said, bowing at them. “As it is now time, Ductor Zelenka has been disqualified for failing to return. It is with the deepest gratitude that we thank you ladies for your participation. Unfortunately, at each stage some of you must be taken out of the competition.”

  Evony heard steps coming from behind and glanced back to see the serving girls moving forward so that they stood between the crowd and the breezeway. Realizing why they’d been there in the first place, she looked back at Rakin who continued. “To that end, we thank Magna Simin, Ductor Bialis, Ductor Harkin, Rector Porfirio and Rector Gormain for your answers and spirit, but must eliminate you. If you will follow the girls behind you, they will escort you to your rooms,” he said, gesturing towards the servants.

  Watching the girls named shuffle out of the crowd, Evony felt a bit of regret. Both that she wasn’t one of them and that she hadn’t gotten a chance to speak to the girl in silver. She carried herself with pride and looked like someone she would have gotten along with. The one in purple looked ready to cry, the girl in white looked stunned and like she wasn’t sure what was happening, the red girl seemed disappointed, while the one in blue looked angry. Evony didn’t know why, not when her answer had been about having heirs. It had been the worst answer she’d heard by far.

  Rakin waited until all five girls had been escorted out by the serving women before he spoke again. “Congratulations to you twenty for passing the first test.” He smiled slightly. It made his nose look more pronounced and gave him a faintly animalistic air for a moment. Evony thought he looked much better that way, but the expression didn’t last long.